Chapter 9

“Verus. Not to mention the butchered bodies that were found.” Camm sounded confident.

Jael shook his head. “So the police suspect Verus? Easy enough. But how do you know he’s with them?”

“There’s about six people that we’re looking to identify within this group. He hasn’t turned up yet, so he’s most likely alive.”

“Huh. Figures. I wonder how long he’s been hiding with them.” Jael leaned back and placed his hands atop his head.

“I hoped you’d be more surprised,” Camm said, slightly disappointed.

“Nothing about that asshole surprises me anymore.”

“But,” Camm continued, “the best news is that we have a good idea where we can find him, and the rest of those bastards.”

“Where’s that?”

Camm pulled out his celltab and laid it flat on Jael’s desk. Residual diamond dust crunched underneath it. Camm picked it back up, and blew the dust towards Jael. Camm eyed him before setting his celltab back down. Jael brushed the front of his shirt off.

Camm pressed a button on the front of the device. A wide, cylindrical cutout of a forested valley landscape appeared above it, rotating slowly.

“This is a valley in the Red Mountains, just past the terminator. We think their operation is somewhere in the area. This is where we planted the evidence.” The map zoomed out to include a red arrow pointing to the location where the shallow grave of discarded synth cells had been discovered--the cells attributed to murder by the hand of Verus.

The edge of Rhod was now visible and Jael was able to see everything in relation to the city. “There’s an old mining operation in the valley that was abandoned before the turn of the century. We believe they’ve repurposed it as living quarters. We need information about how we can get inside.”

“So, fly a drone over. Get a reading on the area.”

“We tried.” Camm sat back and continued, “They have a detection perimeter set up. Our drones get shot out of the sky. The perimeter detects androids, synths...anything that isn’t human. We need someone that can get us some info. We can’t afford to send androids in that just get captured and taken apart.”

Camm pressed another button on the celltab display. Profiles of six people appeared, one of them Jael recognized as his brother, Jazun.

“These are your guys?” Jael asked.

“Our main goal is this person.” The profile of a dark-skinned woman highlighted. “Moja. Her husband reported her missing about twenty-five years ago. They both worked in the UN geology department in the ‘50s, before Zarmina was sectored off. If we can get a reading on the area, I can set up a team to flush them out.”

“You can’t find her? Aren’t you the man with infinite resources?” Jael halfway smiled at his own remark.

“I need to keep this between us. This matter is delicate. You’re my resource for finding people, J.”

Camm did have a long list of contacts that proved to be fruitful in times such as these, but he was intent on keeping the matter quiet. Camm stood and walked to the window. The outside was heavy with clouds. “Moja’s husband has since transferred. He chose to leave behind her memory when he did.”

Jael remained silent.

“He wouldn’t know her if he saw her.” Camm, turned back to Jael and continued, “And I don’t blame him. Who would want to remember someone who abandoned their marriage and ruined his career?”

Jael sat and reflected.

“There’s an old access road that leads to the area.” He walked back over to Jael’s desk and returned to the cutout of the valley. The map reappeared and spun on its axis. He zoomed the map out far enough to show a highlighted route leading north from the highway that encircled Rhod. “The road was taken off the grid years ago. The only way to get there is to drive. Manually.”

Manual driving on public roads had never been legal in the history of Zarmina’s government. Jael was unsure what Camm was getting at.

“You want me to find someone that knows how to drive?”

“Someone who doesn’t give a shit about the politics involved. Someone who doesn’t ask questions,” he added, turning back from the window. You pull this off, get me some data on that valley, I’ll get you that new cell.”